What are your top tech tips for choosing and using gadgets?

On 29/11/16 Ian said:

“I suspect VR headsets will do that, and the video games industry, reaching its home-grown heights in the early to mid-’80s, has been responsible for a complete revolution in the way pilots are trained and military drones are piloted.”

Actually I suspect there have been some long term synergies between the world of PC games and military simulators. Military “computer games” probably predate the era of low cost micros and PCs. When I was working at Harwell in the mid-1990s, some of my colleagues were working on 3D-TV systems for nuclear remote handling applications. At the time, they expected that commercial domestic 3D-TV sets would only be few years away. In fact it took more like a decade or two for that fad to appear and then wane.

On a recent trip to Paris to give some recitals I was able to store all the manuals I needed for cameras, etc., more than 200 pages of sheet music, all the details of our travel insurance, tickets, passport copies and emergency contact details and all I had to do was remember the charger.

I met up with a harpist from the RCM and she was using her iPad to store all her manuscript on. Life is becoming a lot easier – in some ways.

That sounds like a lot of eggs in one basket, Ian. 🙂

Yes – you’re right about that, which is why we have two iPads, and back up to iCloud. I’m mildly obsessional about that sort of thing .

Excellent. That takes us nicely into the importance of backups when using computer-based technology. Hardly a top tech tip but it could save a lot of grief.

I know little about computers, but would be reluctant to back up my data onto someone elses’ equipment, like iCloud or Bullguard. I have a separate hard drive that my kids bought me years ago and this reminds me I ought to make the effort to use it again. No chance of hacking into that, is there?

Backups are essential – probably the most essential aspect of any computing activity. In my case we have three discrete back up systems: iCloud for photos and some documents, the Mac’s own backup system Time Machine, and air-gapped HDs to which I backup when needed or to a timetable.

We have a lot of family photos and a great deal of video, so our main system has 4 x 4TB drives, 1 x 3TB drive and a 1GB SSD for start up. The secondary system only has 4 x 2TB drives, but daisy chained externally are 4 x 6TB drives for the media server, accessed through the Apple TV elsewhere in the house. Having returned from Paris to a failed HD on the secondary system, having the data backed up as it is proved very valuable.

There are two sorts of people: those that back up, and those who will! Better to be in the first group rather than the remorseful second. On macs, using timemachine onto an external drive works really well for most people, either to a directly attached external drive or over your home wifi. The backups can be encrypted to keep the contents safe.

People who install these devices are signing up to monitoring and surveillance. I was more concerned about the use of compulsory smart meters to check energy [and in the case reported, water] consumption for a specific period. As you say, Patrick, good for the investigation of crimes, but does all this data have to be retained?